CHENNAI: “Anahat Singh is a prodigy. Players like her come once every 10 years,” says Dhruv Dhawan. India’s junior squash coach had just seen Singh and two of her teammates, Yuvna Gupta and Pooja Arthi R, dismantle Singapore 3-0 to reach the semifinals of the Asian Junior Championships. Singh had opened India’s account before Arthi and Gupta helped the hosts to a commanding victory. They will face Malaysia for a place in Sunday’s final.
“Anahat was clinical, and that helped a lot to set the tone,” Dhawan said. For me, Pooja played the match of the day. She played the best squash that I’ve seen her play, and her opponent was not an easy opponent (Au Yeong Wai Iynn). She beat her 3-1, which was very, very good.”
While talking about the thrilling second tie of the match between Gupta and Ong Zhe Sim, he said: “Yuvna was two-match points down, and she came back from there, so hats off to her. The second tie is always pressure because if she loses, then the third player has a lot more pressure going in. This was a medal match, and I’m sure it was playing in her mind. Also, she’s been a national champion in the juniors, and that experience helped her a lot.”
When he was asked to elaborate on Singh, who had grabbed eyeballs during her performances at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Dhawan opened up. “We have Joshna (Chinappa). We have Dipika (Pallikal). I feel like we need to support her. After Anahat, the drop-off is very big. If you compare her with other -15 girls, we are way behind her within India. And in the long run, that will hurt her because this batch will go to college etc.”
Singh, who won the U-15 British Open (a very prestigious age-group event in the sport) last month, dominated Lee Zi Fang from start to finish. She essentially showed why she’s ranked India’s best player at the event. If the country is to harness her talent, Dhawan was of the opinion that the country should host more PSA events.
“Within the domestic circuit, she needs players to play with to keep that momentum going. For that reason, a lot of PSAs in India should be organized. Even for small professional tournaments, players from abroad are coming in where she gets exposure playing them. She has got to step up and play the bigger players. We have to look after her big time.” he explained.
On Saturday, Singh will again have the opportunity to show why she’s rated very highly.